Donald Trump has been catching flak for suggesting George W. Bush share the blame for 9/11. Interestingly, never the one to miss a chance to chat with reporters, Trump intentionally dodged questions about his comments.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism for his rather unsavory remarks which suggested ex-president George W. Bush was partially responsible for the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks that left thousands of Americans dead in 2001.

Trump suggested that George W. Bush should share the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks because they happened during his presidency. Interestingly, prominent Republicans, too, found the comments by Trump were uncalled for, reportedUSA Today. Speaking about the same, Republican Peter King, R-N.Y., former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said as follows.

“I think Donald Trump is totally wrong there. Anyone who has any real knowledge of that — you can get all the CIA people, all of the career people — no one saw the attack of 9/11 coming. And to blame George Bush for what happened on September 11…shows a lack of knowledge and is too much of a cheap shot at the president.”

Echoing the sentiments of King, Ben Carson, who too is a GOP presidential nominee, said as follows.

“Blaming Bush wouldn’t make much sense. I think it’s ridiculous to suggest that (Bush) is responsible for it.”

Amidst the entire backlash about his comments, Donald Trump chose to remain absolutely silent and even chose not to engage with reporters, an opportunity he clearly never misses, reportedCNN. When Trump was asked if he thought the attacks were George W. Bush’s fault, he paused to listen to the question, but chose to walk away without saying anything. Though the reporters persisted and pressured him for comments, Trump remained resolute and ignored about half a dozen attempts to elicit a reaction, while he walked to his motorcade.

An interesting theory was suggested by Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary during the Bush administration. He suggested that Donald Trump eerily sounded like a “Truther,” which is slang for someone who strongly believes in conspiracy theory, particularly the one which states that 9/11 was an “inside job.”

“When Donald Trump implies that since 9/11 took place on Bush’s watch he is partially responsible for it, he’s starting to sound like a truther. And after all, does Donald Trump also think since Pearl Harbor happened on FDR’s watch that FDR is responsible? I just think he belongs to an extraordinarily small faction of people who blame 9/11 on George Bush. Interestingly, Hillary Clinton was one of those people for short time.”

There have been widespread rumors and accusations that claim that 9/11 wasn’t orchestrated by terrorist groups or Osama Bin Laden, but was the brainchild of the then U.S. Government itself. The 9/11 attacks in 2001 left about 3,000 Americans dead and exposed the gaping holes in internal security.

Though it is highly unlikely that Donald Trump is a “Truther,” he did indicate that the former president could share some blame for the attacks when he said the following.

“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time.”

Justifying his stand, Trump continued.

“He was president, OK?… Blame him, or don’t blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”

Despite his comments, which may appear borderline insane or offensive, Donald Trump continues to remain the top polling contender for the GOP nomination. According to Huffington Post, Trump is leading by 29.5 percent, as against Jeb Bush, who is trailing at 7.7 percent. However, given the strong sentiments associated with 9/11, it is unclear how Trump’s comments will affect his lead.